The Celestial Castle in Valkyrie Profile is a really crappy dungeon. I can't believe that anyone making this thought it would be a good idea to kick you back to the world map after falling off a platform, wasting 2 periods in the process, and there isn't even a save point before there. Most of the hard mode-exclusive dungeons have been really good (especially the Tombs of Amenti) but this is just incredibly cheap.

eh. I think I ignored the treasures there anyways, but at least the game for the most part makes each dungeon fresh (for better or worse) in different ways. Either way, I remember me holding my head more at Lezard's giant ass tower and Amenti (because it took forever; I got lost).

Finished Dead Island, and while it has some issues it was for the most part a fun romp. Decided to pop in Asura's Wrath to tide me over until Last of Us comes out. So far it's a fun little romp as well.

Finished Binary Domain. I appreciate the fact that they tried to spice up the gameplay from time to time but it got repetitive. Whacked story though, that I liked.

Went back to Arkham City and I'm remembering why I stopped in the first place. It's also repetitive.I'm getting tired of games that think "challenge" means just throwing wave after wave of enemies at you until your hand cramps.

I finished Valkyrie Profile. I first played it over a decade ago and I liked it more this time round, since I understood the combat more rather than just mashing buttons, and the real ending didn't leave a bitter aftertaste. It was a great game, but a strangely designed one. Most people playing the game will never even see much of the best content (a big chunk of the plot, and everything in hard mode). I think it would have been better off without the multiple difficulties (which don't do much other than lock out the best stuff) and obviously by making the ending requirements not so obscure.

Finished Asuras Wrath earlier, I loved the story, too bad the game wasn't fleshed out more. Went to GS and they had Dishonored on sale for pro members for $25 so I decided I had to have it, hopefully it lives up to the hype I have heard.

I finished Valkyrie Profile. I first played it over a decade ago and I liked it more this time round, since I understood the combat more rather than just mashing buttons, and the real ending didn't leave a bitter aftertaste. It was a great game, but a strangely designed one. Most people playing the game will never even see much of the best content (a big chunk of the plot, and everything in hard mode). I think it would have been better off without the multiple difficulties (which don't do much other than lock out the best stuff) and obviously by making the ending requirements not so obscure.

The first time I played it I think I had it set on Normal or Easy. At the very least, Easy mode should've been taken it, since it makes the game completely horrible. Since you basically don't even need to play it.

Anyway, played some more Dust: An Elysian Tale. I'm liking this quite a lot. Apparently Tough difficulty is considerably better than Normal. Fidget's voice is growing on me.

Also I need to have Variable Refresh turned on or the game stutters a lot, and it's pushing my CPU ALMOST to overheating, although it looks like the latter thing's a known issue.

Logged

o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

I finished Valkyrie Profile. I first played it over a decade ago and I liked it more this time round, since I understood the combat more rather than just mashing buttons, and the real ending didn't leave a bitter aftertaste. It was a great game, but a strangely designed one. Most people playing the game will never even see much of the best content (a big chunk of the plot, and everything in hard mode). I think it would have been better off without the multiple difficulties (which don't do much other than lock out the best stuff) and obviously by making the ending requirements not so obscure.

That's a good point. I do like the idea of different difficulties (and to some extent, I do like the idea of locking out *certain* things for going the easy route), but I agree that the main purpose of Hard in VP is to lock the best stuff out -- and that's a pretty critical design choice.I love the game nonetheless, and I'm sad we've been on such radio silence to one of the better Tri-Ace series'.... well, I like most of their stuff, but I heard their latest hasn't been too hot.

Tales of the Abyss: Oracle HQ. Walking around Daath was a fucking nightmare on the PS2 version, but this dungeon is annoying because it keeps asking you if you want to explore rooms that the captives Natalia and Ion are obviously not in.

Eternal Sonata: I bought this game excited to finally play what was one of the earliest "next gen" RPGs back when the PS3 was fairly new, and I'm a bit of a fan of Tri-Crescendo.... but I find the battle system is more of a pain in the ass then it's worth, and I oddly find the time limit more annoying to deal with than it was in Baten Kaitos. Maybe I just gotta get used to it again though (who are good characters anyways? The game throws like 12 of them at you and I really, reaaallly, don't wanna try them all out to find out). Both ES and BK do have shitty in-battle item management though...

Which reminds me, I gotta beat Baten Kaitos Origins... one of the *BEST* games...-- that I've never beat. I got sidetracked and sad while completing the pac man sidequest.

I also wanna play Valkyrie Profile 2 again.... dammit!!! WHERE IS THE TIIIMEE FOOR ALLL THESEE THIIINGS.I'm gonna fucking retire at 65 and finish my backlog.

Eternal Sonata: I bought this game excited to finally play what was one of the earliest "next gen" RPGs back when the PS3 was fairly new, and I'm a bit of a fan of Tri-Crescendo.... but I find the battle system is more of a pain in the ass then it's worth, and I oddly find the time limit more annoying to deal with than it was in Baten Kaitos. Maybe I just gotta get used to it again though (who are good characters anyways? The game throws like 12 of them at you and I really, reaaallly, don't wanna try them all out to find out). Both ES and BK do have shitty in-battle item management though...

My team was Falsetto, Jazz, and Viola. Every now and then I would switch out Falsetto with Allegretto, but it was that team by the end of the game. On accision I would throw Chopin in the mix to hear him say Italian/French Words very dramatically, then switch him back out again. Also, the battle thing gets better as you go up in battle level. The last one though through me off when it moved what buttons did what during combat...though the tradeoff was that you could do link combos...I think? Someone check that last thing for me, been ages since I played it, which reminds me...I have a save file of it going on the harder difficulty after beating the game. YEAH. That's a lot of f-what was I thinking

Finished Hakuouki last weekend. The final chapter of Hijikata's route was pretty damn cool, especially that final showdown. However, overall I felt like a lot of the routes were a slog. Not to keep harping about the main character, but to be honest the game treated her like an after-thought, which resulted in the main character standing around watching other people do things. I get that visual novels have very little animation, but I find that it's more exciting to read them if the main character is participating in the action. That being said, the few times Chizuru actually does things are mostly satisfying.

My favorite routes were Harada's, Okita's and Kazama's. I liked Harada the best, and his route was pretty great. I found him to be sweet and a pretty balanced individual. Okita was mischievous and snarky, which made his route enjoyable as well. Kazama was also fun to watch in his route, but I have a thing for antagonist love interests in these kind of games.

My overall opinion is that the game is fun and an enjoyable read, but I would space out the routes, since doing too many at once can make the game feel repetitive.

I bought Donkey Kong Returns 3DS on release day and it's pretty good if you like the series. I never bought the Wii version so this is brand new to me. The hubbub about it being 30fps isn't a big deal as the game plays very smoothly. The 3D effect is really good but seems harder to find a good sweet spot than other games. Difficulty, in normal mode at least, is definitely still intact and similar to other games in the series.

Anyway, played some more Dust: An Elysian Tale. I'm liking this quite a lot. Apparently Tough difficulty is considerably better than Normal. Fidget's voice is growing on me.

Also I need to have Variable Refresh turned on or the game stutters a lot, and it's pushing my CPU ALMOST to overheating, although it looks like the latter thing's a known issue.

I bought it too, it's really fun so far, it reminds me of Odin Sphere but with actual level design. The CPU problems seem to have been fixed with the patch he just released, I was getting freezes before but they're gone now.